Kazuyuki Fujita returned (photo) to Japan from his 4 week long training camp at Marco Ruas’s Gym in the U.S. on the 27th. When talking with the press he said that he doesn’t think there is another Japanese fighter who can fight with Alistair. “If I don’t do it, who will?!”

#14: Gono NYE Performance

Gono announced that if everything goes as planned, we will see a performance on NYE on the same level of the red & white song contest, which is the big TV program on NYE in Japan.

#13: Kazunori Yokota Shootboxing

#12: SENGOKU HQ Fight Videos

A few SENGOKU fights will be available on DREAM’s YouTube channel for a limited period of time. They are high quality and with no commentary. Check them out.

On the 21st PANCRASE announced some additional fights for the first big card of their 2010 Passion Tour on February 7th. Previously announced for the card was a Flyweight title fight.

As for the newly announced fights, Yuki Kondo will take on Sakuraba pupil and SENGOKU participant Takenori Sato for the interim Middleweight title, KEI Yamamiya will take on Yuji “The Pink Typhoon” Hisamatsu, who drew with Kondo in his last fight, and hard-hitting Seiya Kawahara will have a tough task in front of him against Tashiro Nishiuchi, who is 6-0-4 in his last 10 fights.

The Naoyuki Kotani vs. Daisuke Nakamura fight which took place at ZST is now out on YouTube:

The rules for the DREAM vs. SRC fights will be three five minute rounds and no stomps or soccerkicks (taking the bad from both). Referees will be mixed from both organizations. I don’t think the judging is decided yet.

Kazushi Sakuraba is injured and will most likely not participate. 1-2 more fights will be added (probably one of them being Kazuo Misaki vs. Melvin Manhoef).

Kawajiri wasn’t very motivated at the press conference: “I have no interest in this fight and I’m not motivated either.”

Omigawa and Takaya sounded more hyped for their fight though. Omigawa said that he thinks they are the best two Japanese featherweights.

Yokota is motivated to fight Kawajiri since Kawajiri is quite a big name now. He thinks that he’d take Kawajiri in a K-1 fight (Yokota has fought in shootboxing, bare-knuckle muay thai, kickboxing, etc. before with good results).

Aoki interrupted Yokota as he talked about beating Kawajiri in K-1: “Enough already. Be quiet, you.”

The glare of Aoki

However, Yokota just continued and said that he thinks he would be able to do more against Masato (than Kawajiri did) and he wants to show that in this fight.

After this Kawajiri said that he wants to meet the new year in a good way, fight with all his might, kill Yokota, etc.

Hirota said that it doesn’t seem like Aoki know about him (Aoki said at the first Dynamite!! press conference that he doesn’t know who the SRC champion is): “Should I put a heavy strike on him?”

Takaya said that the audience should obey the rules (there was an incident at the Featherweight GP finals where Takaya’s gang caused some trouble at the event): “I want you to be quiet and watch, and leave the fighting to me and Omigawa.”

Omigawa said that Takaya will be his favorite food on NYE. Both are excited, Omigawa said that because Takaya is the opponent in the “Kusottare Theatre” everything worked out as he desired. He says that they’ll have a violent and good fight on NYE. Takaya shares the same feelings.

"Choding" Aoki ("Elementary school kid" Aoki)

When the fighters were going to have their pitcure taken together after after the press conference Kawajiri just left and Aoki was going to do the same but DREAM EP Sasahara grabbed him and showed him where to stand.

Tomorrow (December 22nd) from around 13:00 (Japanese time) the third Dynamite!! 2009 press conference will take place and it will be streamed live on Ustream (I’ll post the link when I get it).

FEG’s Tanigawa was asked about Gomi on twitter today and wrote that we’ll know the outcome of that affair at tomorrows announcement.

However, from reading Gomi’s blog, America looks to be next for him. But he did post a picture with a Dynamite!! poster and his post wasn’t about the event.

Aoki had some harsh words for SENGOKU on the latest issue of Kamipro. Will it be Aoki vs. Hirota? Most is pointing toward Shinya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota right now but we’ll see tomorrow.

Yoshihiro Akiyama wrote on his blog that Hiroshi Izumi trained at his gym today.

FEG’s Tanigawa told Kamipro that they’re planning to hold a DREAM event in South Korea next year. He said that DREAM, K-1, and SENGOKU will all be around next year as well.

SRC will have an event on March of next year but it’ll be tough if they don’t have any good results on the first events of 2010. We’ll see if the new guy (Booker K: past matchmaker of PRIDE, was the link between PRIDE and the Chute Boxe camp, I think he was agent of Igor Vovchanchyn, etc.) can come in and keep the organization alive.

Shu Hirata asked WVR to end the contracts of his fighters if they won’t hold an event on NYE so that they could/can negotiate in the U.S. (Dan Hornbuckle was going to face Takimoto for the title on NYE if SRC 12 wasn’t cancelled, etc.). He says that they are earnest and ended the contracts.

Q: You started out as a kickboxer. Why did you decide to switch to MMA?
CJ: I started kickboxing since 10th grade. Originally my goal was to fight at K-1 because I fell in love with Ernesto Hoost’s powerful low kicks and awesome technique. After training kickboxing, I went to Kyongbuk Science University to major MMA (note: yes, this university offers a degree in MMA lol.). That’s when I first trained jiujitsu and I liked it. Locking in a submission gave me a different kind of satisfaction from striking.
I never liked fighting on the ground, but once I started training grappling I came to like it enough to make me want to switch to MMA.

Q: If you had continued to be a kickboxer, what level do you think you’d be at now?
CJ: It’s hard to say (laughs). I recently sparred with Chi-bin Lim, Jae-gil Noh, and Min-suk Kwon, and I wasn’t on their level. I couldn’t keep up with their pace. Standup fighting and MMA require different use of stamina. In standup fighting you have to keep throwing punches and kicks. You use different muscles and styles for each sport.

Q: If you were a kickboxer, what kind of style would you have?
CJ: I’d say I would have fought like Se-gi Kim or Min-suk Kwon; a brawling in-fighter rather than a technical out-fighter.

Q: What’s your ultimate goal? Have you ever thought about moving up to lightweight and fighting in the UFC?
CJ: As of now, my goal is to fight in the WEC and become a champion. I have no intention of moving up in weight whatsoever.

Q: Have you seen the Penn-Sanchez fight? He (Penn) might as well be called the lightweight Fedor.
CJ: He’s just what his nickname says he is – a prodigy. I think his style of fighting is the way to go now. I emulate his takedown defense in training. I, like BJ Penn, focus on the defensive aspect of wrestling. It feels better to defend a takedown than to score one (laughs).